PHOTO BY PHOENIX MOORE |
PHOTO BY PHOENIX MOORE |
PHOTO BY JODY WHITE |
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1 . LUCAS OIL CHALLENGE CUP PRESENTED BY B & W TRAILER HITCHES Neenah , Wis . Sept . 14-19
Heading out onto Lake Winnebago for the final round of the 2021 Challenge Cup , Edwin Evers ’ enthusiasm was palpable . The Oklahoma pro said he enjoyed one of the best days of fun-fishing in his entire life on this 131,000-acre Wisconsin lake , and after claiming his first MLF Cup trophy , Evers has even more reason to celebrate Winnebago .
Connecting with 18 fish for 39 pounds , 5 ounces while running a small series of five docks on the lower west side of Winnebago , Evers bested the rest of the field by an easy 20-plus-pound margin . Fishing a Berkley PowerBait MaxScent The General , he focused on docks that had very specific characteristics : located on current-heavy points , clean water , and sunk into rocky , grass-free bottom structure .
Evers ’ timing on his key docks was impeccable . Following a twohour cold spell in which Mike
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McClelland pulled to within a pound of the lead , Evers piled up over 19 pounds of largemouth in the afternoon . McClelland eventually fished the same series of docks late in the day , but only after Evers had already milked them dry .
2 . ACADEMY SPORTS + OUTDOORS HERITAGE CUP PRESENTED BY MAGELLAN OUTDOORS Waco , Tx .
Oct . 4-9
Judging by his recent success in competitions held in Texas , casual fans might just presume that Ott DeFoe grew up fishing the Lone Star State . Not true – DeFoe is from East Tennessee – but his affinity for Texas largemouth was on full display in the 2021 Heritage Cup in Waco .
After winning his Elimination Round on Belton Lake and advancing out of the Sudden Death Round on Lake Waco , DeFoe scratched out a 1- pound victory over Texan Jeff Sprague in the Championship Round of the event , contested on Lake Whitney , an impoundment of the Brazos River located an hour north of Waco .
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DeFoe quickly built a strong topwater pattern on the final day , focusing on steep , rocky banks , eventually racking up 18 fish for 33-5 on a buzzing frog and a 1 / 8-ounce buzzbait with a Bass Pro Shops Speed Shad trailer . The Heritage Cup win was DeFoe ’ s second major victory in Texas in a year ( he won a Bass Pro Tour event on Lake Athens seven months prior ).
3 . TOYOTA SERIES PRESENTED BY A . R . E . SOUTHWESTERN DIVISION Sam Rayburn Reservoir Jan . 28-30
Derek Mundy capped off perhaps the best January in tournament bass fishing history with his heroics on Sam Rayburn to begin 2021 . The month began with a Phoenix Bass Fishing League victory in which Mundy clobbered 40 pounds , 10 ounces of huge Texas bass to record one of the largest one-day limits in MLF history .
From there , all Mundy did was weigh in 39-7 on Day 2 of the Toyota Series Southwestern Division opener ( including a 13-10 mammoth kicker )
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to run away with a bookend win that saw the Broaddus , Texas hammer earn $ 51,150 in the month of January alone on his home lake . Not too shabby .
You can read more about Mundy ’ s stellar month on page 74 .
4 . TOYOTA SERIES PRESENTED BY A . R . E . SOUTHERN DIVISION Lake Toho Feb . 4-6
Growing up fishing the Potomac River , Bryan Schmitt had to learn the intricacies of fishing grass in order to simply compete . In his incredibly successful career , he ’ s done much more than just compete – he ’ s practically dominated .
Schmitt boasts a career full of wins on the likes of the Potomac and the James and the Mississippi Rivers . You can now add Lake Toho to that list – yet another fishery with abundant vegetation , though still very different than some of its northern riverine counterparts .
Schmitt needed only his ample grass-fishing knowledge and his Garmin LiveScope to identify what
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